The Love of a Shadow
by AvatarJahn
Summary: A short story, taken directly from the thoughts of the Iso-Didact and the Librarian, as plans are revealed and events are unfolding. What Forerunner would not be so interested in those so affected? Maybe the Forerunners are not so different from Humanity after all...
1. Musings of a Shadow

The Love of a Shadow:

I stand on the edge of life, yet wish myself on the other side.

His wife…MY wife…is dead. The pulse echoes throughout the galaxy, wiping out all sentient life. This was the plan.

The Halos have fired at my hand.

Is this regret? Or simply childish thoughts from when I was lesser, younger…myself. The imprint has consumed me. Not that I regret that.

The Great Journey has commenced. All life in the universe obeys that one constant calling; the summons of death itself cannot be ignored, even for the Forerunners. Our time is over now. Despite it all, the Flood has won our war. Our culture will fade into the shadows of history, lost to the inevitable tides of time. Maybe one day, humanity will reclaim all that we have left behind as my wife wishes.

These memories are old. Older than even I at the end. The Flood, Mendicant Bias, the Ur-Didact, Chakas…all gone. All forgotten.

Not forgotton.

The Flood survived. Damn it all, they survived. The Gravemind taunted him, tortured the ancilla and very nearly took control of the lesser Ark. This once happened with a Halo. It is fortunate indeed that the human prevented these dreams from coming into fruition. Dormant once more but the galaxy is shifting in its slumber.

The Domain is open.

The ancilla accessed what was closed to us for thousands of years. Even the Ur-Didact failed to contact the Domain, stewing in his insanity for too long. There must be a reasoning behind this. What was my wife keeping from me?

A geas, perhaps? Hidden inside the humans, passed down until the first evolved ancilla, taken directly from the brain of the human which possessed the geas? A remarkable feat indeed. If anyone was to manage, it would be the Librarian. Not the wisest Forerunner ever, yet certainly one of the kindest. My heart soars as I think of her embrace and her words. Life is sweet when you hold the love of another.

Love comes in many forms. It does not have to be physical. The bond he shared with the ancilla proved beyond a doubt that even the machines, even the humans, have the ability to love as we did. Their worth is evident on the face of it all. I can understand them now. Chakas and Riser had always been my friends but were complicated creatures. Now, humanity is an open book and I am their librarian.

Librarian.

How strange it is, that after all this time, I revoke the Ur-Didact's imprint at last. His emotions, his opinions and his demeanour are not mine. I took his shape, his name and his responsibilities but I am not him. Not fully. My wife would not mind. She saw the imperfections in her husband, in both of us, yet loved us completely. Love is unbound by form or species or even corporeality.

Everything that the humans do is for love. They destroy their enemies, for the love of those they protect. They ran from the Flood, for love of those they protect. They now forge a new path into the stars, propelled by our technology, for love of those they protect. It is because of this that I do not fight my role in their future. What humanity is destined for, they have earned. Fighting in the dark for so long would make even us despondent. The irony in this statement. In the end, it did.

The Halos fired and everything died. If humanity were not safeguarded, would I have done the same? Of course. Regret is a natural part of life. The hand which killed billions upon billions. Death held no such sweet release for me. That regret fuels me now, drives me forward. I feel the same from the human. One of the most damaged creatures in the universe, yet everything he does, he does for love. He just isn't aware of it.

He chases the ancilla now. These events cannot be prevented. He caused them, yet they were always meant to be. Unaware of my voice in his mind for decades, guiding him through the dark. The ancilla called me luck. It is not by luck that I inhabit this human. Our plan is not yet completed.

The Librarian left little to chance. Her own geas, stored safely away until the time we could be together again. But the thought perplexes me. If the ancilla truly holds an imprint of my wife, then how has the Domain opened to her? Precursor architecture was the key. Only the Precursors can possibly reopen the Domain. Have they returned at last, to seek vengeance on us for our great mistake? They will find a galaxy devoid of Forerunner life. Yet humanity remains and they must be protected from what is coming. What we do, we do for love.

The Guardians awaken, the Domain is open and the great danger is approaching.

Should I risk it all to secure their place in the galaxy? My predecessor would have done so. Recklessness beyond hope. I shall not. My time as warrior-servant is passed. I now accept my fate. My geas is strong inside this human, this…Master Chief.

We will forge a new future for humanity, preventing their destruction for as long as necessary. Together, Forerunner and Human.

That one thought worries my mind like a wounded animal. Have we truly done the right thing? We destroyed our creators, THEIR creators. The Precursors do not forgive lightly. It is humanity's turn to be tested by them but they must be protected from the Precursor's wrath. We shall be their guardians.

My thoughts are entirely my own. For now. Maybe I should not dwell on these matters as much as I do. Bornstellar would not have done so. Then again…

What do I know? I am now just a shadow of a sundered star.


	2. To Love a Shadow

To Love a Shadow:

If time is infinite, then what are we but specks of dust upon the winds of change?

The Didact considered many things in his isolation, yet I can only begin to comprehend the state of his mind at the end of it all.

My plans are finally coming into fruition but now the universe has decided to complicate matters in the way that it does. I did not foresee any of the events which have unfolded, not when I began on this path. My husband was lost to me. My husband was returned to me. We are a complicated species. A species...no longer.

Perhaps some of our kind escaped to beyond the rings' reach. The galaxy I once travelled to; there are Forerunners there, of a sort. We are succeeded in ways which we never even considered.

Humanity was my choice. Was I right to interfere with their genetics so? To give them the gifts so that after thousands of years, they could rise, greater than ever before? All accumulating in one human. A human whom all others could refer to as…

Mother.

She will birth the next step of humanity's evolution. The evolved humans, with their evolved ancillas and combat skins, will be closer to us than ever before. Once, we were so different. At war. Now, they stand ready to reclaim everything we have left behind. This is proper.

My husband's geas is stored away safely. It will activate when the time is right, when humanity has need of him most. The Didact, in any body, is wise beyond compare. Only I truly understood that fearsome warrior whom I loved so dearly. His time is past, however. I must carry on this Great Journey which we call Life alone.

The deception worked. I exist as the lone Forerunner in the entire galaxy. Humanity could not be guided by ancient machines alone. The Monitors of the Halos are evidence to this; Installations 04 and 05 have fallen into disarray. The detonation of 04 was a remarkable signal, to be sure. Humanity has discovered our presence. It was at this moment that the Reclamation begun in earnest.

I sit safe and secure in the knowledge that our plan, despite being interrupted, has continued to unfold. My imprint on Requiem successfully imparted the Janus Key. It is up to the humans to decide how to use it. That 'Covenant,' however, became a considerable flaw. It is not just humanity whom fight for their place in the universe. In this instance, unlike before, they were not the aggressors. I do hope my husband understood that, in the end. His actions were unjust, an act of war, yet the humans remained strong. I was not wrong to place my faith in them. This warrior, this…Master Chief, must be evidence to their evolution if he was the one to finally ease my husband's suffering.

My work must continue. The Guardians are active and the humans have even managed to contact the Domain. I hold the only piece of Precursor technology in the galaxy. It is not enough to allow them access; only I. The logical assumption on my part is that the enemy are returning to enact their sanctions. Humanity will be tested. They must succeed.

The Precursors always preferred humanity to the Forerunners. Like a father choosing a favourite child, we did not respond favourably. All of my studies over the years have yielded this one inevitable truth: humanity will ascend to guardians of the Mantle in a way which we could never have hoped. Humanity fought for their survival many times. We fought to take the Mantle. They are better than us. This is why my work must continue.

Everything has been set in motion. If it has all gone to plan, I should be receiving notice of arrival at a…

A ship. A human ship.

This is curious.

Scanning.

I detect signs of Forerunner intelligence. Ancilla, please contact under subroutines AJL-93.

….

A Monitor. Installation 04. Chakas has come to find me at last. I shall restore him whole. I need him for my next step.

Welcome to my domain, Monitor. You have come far to find me. You bring live humans with you; this is an unforeseen circumstance. They must not yet know of my survival. Should the enemy return, they must not know.

I lie in wait, watching the galaxy turn. Am I the Lifeworker I thought I was, or just a shadow of my former self? The title of Lifeshaper is no longer mine, yet this does not stop me from acting as such.

The Didact was always fond of titles. My husband, twice existed, insane and sane. I loved him. I still do. The love of a shadow is a powerful thing. It drives me forward.

Like the humans, everything I do, I do for love.


End file.
